


if you need a light

by dytabytes



Category: Marvel, Marvel 616, New Mutants
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-02
Updated: 2011-11-02
Packaged: 2017-10-25 17:09:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/272727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dytabytes/pseuds/dytabytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A conversation that may or may not have happened. (Set almost directly after <a href="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu28npp7eE1qhia9no1_500.jpg">this page</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	if you need a light

  
  
_I'll find a match_   
  


"Did you just call me baby?"

The words echo in Roberto's head as he sits by Amara's sleeping form, standing guard over her as she heals.

He didn't know how to answer then. He still doesn't know how he'd answer now. If she woke up and asked him...

"Roberto Dacosta, you are an idiot."

The ache between his eyebrows continues to throb even though he's been rubbing at it for ages.

It's not that he doesn't know how to talk to women. Roberto talks to women all the time, and they generally enjoy it very much. It's just that Amara is no ordinary woman. She's _Amara_ , special and wonderful and more everything than any other person in the world. When she looks at him, his tongue ties up into little knots and he has no idea what to say. The words just evaporate from his brain.

He strokes his fingers through the lava in the tub, watching the ripples drift across the surface as he thinks. Maybe it's just that he hasn't practiced what he wants to say? Maybe if he practices he'll be able to say it to her. This is just like fighting, right? If you do anything enough, it becomes second nature.

Roberto clears this throat.

"Amara..." I want you. I need you. I dream about you every night. "I think the world of you."

Well, that will do as well.

"You're beautiful." No, she'll think he only likes her for her looks.

"Your eyes remind me of sapphires." Too poetic. He'll sound like a lovesick teenager.

"When your booty drops, my heart stops." That is the worst phrase ever. He needs to stop talking to Tabitha.

"You- You make me wish I were a better man, so that I could deserve to l- to lo-"

Roberto's voice cracks and he bites his lip for a moment. He can't say the word.

"To like you. Because I like you. I like you a lot, like, like like you in that grade school, throwing a crumpled piece of paper across the room kind of-"

A soft murmur silences him. Roberto's gaze snaps to Amara, and he realizes that her eyelids are fluttering open.

When her eyes meet his, his heart drops right through his stomach and deep down into the floor.

" _Damn_. Amara, I'm sorry. I woke you up. I should- I'll just go now."

He spins on his heel, trying to think of where he can go that no one else will find him. Maybe up into the clouds? No, Sam will follow him...

Amara's hand on his shoulder halts him in his tracks.

"Roberto."

There is a strange tone to her voice, something that's more than drowsiness, something he hasn't heard before.

She must be very, very mad at him, he decides.

"Roberto, you never answered my question before."

"Question?" He knows exactly what she's asking about, but he tries to shield himself with humour. If he can turn this into a joke, he can laugh it off. He won't have to face her probable, no, _definite_ rejection. "What question?"

Amara rolls her eyes. "Roberto Dacosta, you have the memory of a fruit fly. Did you call me baby or not?" She pulls on his shoulder, turning him to face her. He stares at the rim of the tub, unwilling to meet her eyes.

"Oh. Ah. Well..." But he can't quite make himself lie to her. "Sort of. Yes."

"Why?"

There's such confusion in her tone that Roberto can't help but blurt, "You mean- You can't honestly not- Amara, you're perfect! I'm- The- You're beautiful!"

Shit. He wasn't supposed to start with that. What was he supposed to start with? Roberto can't remember for the life of him, but he's already started, so he grabs her hands in his and just goes for it.

"You're beautiful and you're smart and well-spoken and you fight like a goddess and when you smile it's like the sun has come out from behind the clouds. Sometimes I just- I see you and it's like I can't breathe because you're so- because I lo- because I-"

He runs out of steam and can't say it. He can't say it.

He is such a wuss.

Amara sighs and squeezes his hands in her own, rubs her thumbs across the ridges of his knuckles.

"Oh Roberto."

His eyes are still glued to the floor as he slips his hands out of hers.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. I can... I can leave. I'll just-"

"No."

He looks up at her, expecting to face an expression of unhappiness. Instead, he sees... amusement?

The very edges of Amara's mouth tip upward. "You speak far too much and I have a headache."

With that, she slides her hands up around his neck and pulls him close. Her head descends to rest in the curve of his neck and shoulder, her skin comfortingly warm and smooth. She looks like a swan, a phoenix, graceful and bright. Magnificent.

Roberto suddenly realizes that he can never tease Sam again for being a lovesick puppy.

He also realizes that he has no idea what's going on.

"Ah...?"

A soft snort is his response.

"You woke me up and then gave me a headache with your babbling. The least you can do is oblige me by being my pillow for a while. Your shoulders are much more comfortable than the rim of this tub."

Amara's face is still hidden in Roberto's shoulder, but he can hear the way her smile warms her words and a brilliant warmth bursts in his chest.

"Okay. Yes. Yes, I can do that for you."

He smiles, then hesitantly leans up against the side of the tub, closing the distance between the two of them so that he can wrap an arm around her shoulders.

Amara allows him this gesture, humming softly as she rearranges her arms around his neck.

"Mm, yes. Do that."

He stays long after her breathing evens out into the steady rhythm of sleep.


End file.
